WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered a
promising new method to fight a range of diseases by boosting
the body's natural defenses against viruses.

Mauro Costa-Mattioli of McGill University in Montreal, who
helped lead the research published on Wednesday in the journal
Nature, expressed hope that the results achieved in mice might
lead to new antiviral drugs for people.

The researchers inactivated two genes in mice that repress
production of interferon, a protein that serves as a cell's
first line of defense against viruses. The mice produced much
higher levels of interferon, which had the effect of preventing
the viruses from reproducing.

ADVERTISEMENT

The technique made the mice and their cells resistant to
infection by the influenza virus and a handful of other
viruses, Costa-Mattioli's team said. The mice did not appear to
experience any negative consequences from the augmented
interferon production.

The process of inactivating genes -- known as "knocking
out" genes -- cannot currently be done in people, but the
scientists said they hope that drugs can be designed to affect
the two genes in order to protect people from viral infection.

"Hopefully we will mimic the results we got genetically
with pharmacology," Costa-Mattioli said in a telephone
interview. "I think it's going to be an important step
forward."

Viral infections are among the most common diseases,
ranging from influenza to AIDS, and can be very difficult to
fight.

Viruses enter living cells and exploit their reproductive
machinery to sustain and replicate themselves. Interferon
suppresses this viral propagation.

"People have been worried for years about potential new
viral pandemics, such as avian influenzas," Nahum Sonenberg, a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute international scholar at McGill
who worked on the study, said in a statement. "If we might now
have the means to develop a new therapy to fight flu, the
potential is huge."

The researchers said the method holds the potential to
combat a range of viral diseases.

"We hope that we will also be able to stop other viruses
like Ebola and others, based on what we have so far,"
Costa-Mattioli said. "I think it's going to block a few of them
or a majority of them, but I cannot promise. I would be very
naive to say we've saved the world."